More calories per bed than almost anything that grows here, and they keep without canning.

Sow

Chit seed potatoes 2 weeks. Plant whole small tubers or egg-size pieces with 1–2 eyes, 3–4 in deep, when soil hits 50°F — usually late March to mid-April. Hill soil or straw as plants grow.

Spacing

12 in in-row, 30–36 in between rows. One pound of seed plants ~8–10 ft.

Days

70–90 new; 100–120 storage types (Kennebec, Yukon Gold, German Butterball)

Harvest

New potatoes when plants flower. Storage crop after vines yellow and die. Dig on a dry morning. Cure 7–10 days at 55–60°F in the dark, then cellar.

Store

35–40°F, dark, humid, never with apples (ethylene sprouts them). Do not refrigerate below 38°F for long or starch turns sugar.

Seed

Keep clean, typical tubers from healthy plants. After a few years, buy certified seed to dodge virus. Never plant grocery potatoes (sprout inhibitor).

Companions

Beans, corn, horseradish. Keep off tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (same blight family).

Pests

Colorado potato beetle — hand-pick morning and evening, crush egg clusters under leaves. Late blight in wet Julys — don’t overhead-water at night.

A 50-ft double row, well hilled, can feed two people potatoes all winter.

Plant on a slight ridge if your clay holds water. Rot is the killer, not frost.